1 Month Into Bodybuilding. Suggestions Mixing Things Up?

I used to be an extremely lazy person in general until this year. I took a new year resolution to start body building (began on the 2nd of Jan) and am absolutely LOVING life ever since.

I'm an ectomorph who used to have a REALLY shitty diet and sat playing games on the PC literally ALL day. Only leaving the house to go to lectures, buy soda and pick up pizza orders. Now I'm spending 2-3 hours a day, 6 days a week at the gym doing full body workouts, and I seriously wish I could spend MORE time there than I do.

Been eating mostly a paleo diet, cut all sugars out of my diet (stopped soda cold turkey style, and it was easy), and taking 2 weight gainer protein shakes a day. Although because of my body type and metabolism I luckily don't need to be all that careful about what I eat. My starting weight on my first day of gym (empty stomach weighing of course) was 138 pounds. Now after my first month I'm at a nicely filled out 153 pounds. It's incredible the difference lifting can make to your life almost overnight.

So to get to the point, I'm coming into my 2nd month of this and wondering if you guys with more experience might offer some advice as to how I could mix up my routine going forward, such as adding in an exercise for a muscle group I've skimmed over? I'd appreciate any feedback.

My current routine is as follows;

(This whole workout is in a 12x3 format (other than abs which is 25x3). Always going to exhaustion on the 3rd set, past the 12 reps if I need to. This is what I do 5-6 days a week, doesn't make me too sore either.)

Keep going at 5 or 6 days a week and you will be overtrained in a few more weeks.
Most people prefer a split schedule, where you focus on specific muscle groups, every training.

If the above works for you, keep going at it. But millions of people worldwide can't be wrong

Originally Posted by Furkel

There's always, ALWAYS a "huge uproar" about anything Blizz does, usually from people who either don't entirely understand the thing they're complaining about, or refuse to acknowledge that most players are perfectly okay with the current state of affairs. Whenever people complain that they don't listen to feedback it mostly means "they don't listen to ME ME ME".

Not surprised this came up, I'll look for somewhere I can work this into my routine. Although aren't Deadlifts *mostly* the same muscle group as hyperextentions? I could be wrong but it just seems logically correct to assume so.

Keep going at 5 or 6 days a week and you will be overtrained in a few more weeks.
Most people prefer a split schedule, where you focus on specific muscle groups, every training.

If the above works for you, keep going at it. But millions of people worldwide can't be wrong

I did actually try a split workout routine for a week and I didn't really like it all that much. After being used to the full body routine, splits just felt like I hadn't actually done any work by the end of it, I left the gym each day thinking "was that it?". I think (for now at least) my body reacts better to harder (read; longer) work.

I used to be an extremely lazy person in general until this year. I took a new year resolution to start body building (began on the 2nd of Jan) and am absolutely LOVING life ever since.

I'm an ectomorph who used to have a REALLY shitty diet and sat playing games on the PC literally ALL day. Only leaving the house to go to lectures, buy soda and pick up pizza orders. Now I'm spending 2-3 hours a day, 6 days a week at the gym doing full body workouts, and I seriously wish I could spend MORE time there than I do.

Been eating mostly a paleo diet, cut all sugars out of my diet (stopped soda cold turkey style, and it was easy), and taking 2 weight gainer protein shakes a day. Although because of my body type and metabolism I luckily don't need to be all that careful about what I eat. My starting weight on my first day of gym (empty stomach weighing of course) was 138 pounds. Now after my first month I'm at a nicely filled out 153 pounds. It's incredible the difference lifting can make to your life almost overnight.

So to get to the point, I'm coming into my 2nd month of this and wondering if you guys with more experience might offer some advice as to how I could mix up my routine going forward, such as adding in an exercise for a muscle group I've skimmed over? I'd appreciate any feedback.

My current routine is as follows;

(This whole workout is in a 12x3 format (other than abs which is 25x3). Always going to exhaustion on the 3rd set, past the 12 reps if I need to. This is what I do 5-6 days a week, doesn't make me too sore either.)

Like I said any suggestions are welcome. I keep my cardio to a minimum because of my body type and super sayan metabolic rate.

Im sick of new people at the gym thinking "oh i can eat anything without gaining that much fat, i take gainers eat pizza blah blah BLAHHHHHHHHHHHHH"
So you're aiming on gaining a pound or two a week or something? No. You're doing it wrong.
Gain max 4 pounds a month, stop wasting money on supplements you dont need. They dont build muscles more than regular food.

For gods sake stop copying the hodge twins, do your compound movements, just because they dont do it doesnt mean you shouldnt.
Stop eating paleo diet when trying to gain muscle.
You gained 15 pounds in a month, good job adding about 14 pounds of fat on your body, you're not even close to an ectomorph if you gained 15 pounds in a month *facepalm* You're about to get real fat.
And dont spend 2-3 hours in the gym, you're gonna fuck your body up. Stop listening to Hodge Twins.

Step one in the gym: LEAVE UR PRIDE OUTSIDE THE DOOR.
Step two in the gym: Don't lift like a retard and end up half dead after 3 months cuz you didnt follow step one and lift with shitty form cuz the weight is too much.
Step Three in the gym: Listen to what Kai Greene has to say about the gym, if you now are serious about bodybuilding I'd suggest you'd start reading some facts. I'd suggest www.bodybuilding.com & www.Flexonline.com.
Step four in the gym: DO NOT SPEND Countless amounts of $ on supplements, you're new in the gym, kick back, eat 5-6 meals a day and let the progress happend, it does take time.
Step five in the gym: I wouldn't suggest doing full body workouts, it will, as stated above burn your body out and you'll lose more muscles (NOT FAT) than you're gaining, and your body will have to force itself to observe all the food you're eating and you'll gain fat. Just do a 5-6 day split, with 3-5 excercises per bodypart and and a total of 3 set per excercise.
Step six in the gym: IF you're looking to build some muscles, DO CARDIO!!!! Don't be a retard, your body needs cardio and you'll get a way better methabolism if you're doing cardio and your Natural Testorone levels will raise. Which includes more muscle building and that's good.
Step Seven in the gym: Do standard moves, like Deadlift, Squat, military press & Benchpress. These moves are great and will help your body to grow in general.
Step Eight in the gym: If you're gonna be a bodybuilder, IT TAKES TIME. Look @ Branch Warren. He has trained for 22 years, your month is nothing compaired to it. Don't expect to look like him after 12 months of hard work. IT TAKES YEARS.

Im sick of new people at the gym thinking "oh i can eat anything without gaining that much fat, i take gainers eat pizza blah blah BLAHHHHHHHHHHHHH"
So you're aiming on gaining a pound or two a week or something? No. You're doing it wrong.
Gain max 4 pounds a month, stop wasting money on supplements you dont need. They dont build muscles more than regular food.

For gods sake stop copying the hodge twins, do your compound movements, just because they dont do it doesnt mean you shouldnt.
Stop eating paleo diet when trying to gain muscle.
You gained 15 pounds in a month, good job adding about 14 pounds of fat on your body, you're not even close to an ectomorph if you gained 15 pounds in a month *facepalm* You're about to get real fat.
And dont spend 2-3 hours in the gym, you're gonna fuck your body up. Stop listening to Hodge Twins.

Wow, tone down the aggro mate. First off who the fuck is Hodgetwins. Second, I came here legitimately looking for advice, because I AM inexperienced in this, yes. You don't need to shove a tyrade down people's throats just for looking for help. Jesus.

Did I say I eat pizzas? Fuck no I'm not retarded, I look after my diet properly (when I say paleo I mean I'm sticking to lean meat brocolli wild rice etc all the usuals, no processed stuff basically).

EDIT: Thanks for the recommendations so far, I'll certainly switch out a few things for squats, certainly, and switch hypers for deadlift. I'm someone who's really careful with my form and I know how to pace myself interms of weight (I'm currently not lifting very heavy, I'm more concerned with getting my posture and form down before I try and push myself in any serious ways. Not that I haven't made leaps and bounds of progress). Squats and Deadlifts are great indicators of posture and core strength too so they'll certainly keep me on the right track.

That's one way to ruin your body.
I'd say put up a proper routine where you focus on one part of the body / day and split fullbody into 6 days.
This to avoid getting stressfractures.
Also, when you start your sets: Do 12, 1½ min break, 12, 1½ min, 12, 3 min, next set.
Furthermore, continuous workout for over 2 hours is a waste of time, after the 2 hours are up you don't reap any benefits of workout anymore. Only putting further stress on your body, heh.

My personal preference is 10 min warmup. 35-40 minutes of lifting, 15-30 min cardio and then stretching / abdominal strength-stability training.
But then again I only do deadlifts and sidepress' on a 5-3-2 repetition routine.

Edit: This was probabably one of the most unstructured posts I've ever posted while being serious, hehe.

Im sick of new people at the gym thinking "oh i can eat anything without gaining that much fat, i take gainers eat pizza blah blah BLAHHHHHHHHHHHHH"
So you're aiming on gaining a pound or two a week or something? No. You're doing it wrong.
Gain max 4 pounds a month, stop wasting money on supplements you dont need. They dont build muscles more than regular food.

For gods sake stop copying the hodge twins, do your compound movements, just because they dont do it doesnt mean you shouldnt.
Stop eating paleo diet when trying to gain muscle.
You gained 15 pounds in a month, good job adding about 14 pounds of fat on your body, you're not even close to an ectomorph if you gained 15 pounds in a month *facepalm* You're about to get real fat.
And dont spend 2-3 hours in the gym, you're gonna fuck your body up. Stop listening to Hodge Twins.

Yeah, I'm with this guy, no way you added 15 lbs of anywhere near lean body mass in a month. New bodybuilders CAN gain up to 25 lbs, MAYBE 30 lbs in a full year, their first year.

Protein shakes (=/= weight gainers; full of fillers) help reach daily protein requirements IF you cant seem to eat enough food, have enough time to eat enough food throughout the day(things happen). Calories in, calories out while meeting your macro nutrient requirements. Check out bodybuilding.com's forums, nutrition section, read up on calculating macro nutrient requirements even if you don't plan on implementing it, there is good information in there about food.

And yes, do add deadlifts, youtube proper technique, start light until you feel more comfortable with the movement as to not hurt your back. Maybe look into one of the stronglifts variations floating around there, user JasonDB on the bodybuilding.com forums has his own iteration that I'm currently following(Monday Wednesday Friday, ABA then BAB the following week):

I'm really interested in what a lot of you have said about rate of muscle growth in correlation to how much weight I've been gaining so far. Looking at myself I seriously don't see (or feel around my body) anything that feels fatty other than the small amount of stomach+side fat I had before. I see the extra substance in my arms and chest but I can tell it's not fat. I'm not saying you guys are wrong by ANY stretch but from the way my body feels and looks it just doesn't add up. : /

Yeah, I'm with this guy, no way you added 15 lbs of anywhere near lean body mass in a month. New bodybuilders CAN gain up to 25 lbs, MAYBE 30 lbs in a full year, their first year.

Protein shakes (=/= weight gainers; full of fillers) help reach daily protein requirements IF you cant seem to eat enough food, have enough time to eat enough food throughout the day(things happen). Calories in, calories out while meeting your macro nutrient requirements. Check out bodybuilding.com's forums, nutrition section, read up on calculating macro nutrient requirements even if you don't plan on implementing it, there is good information in there about food.

And yes, do add deadlifts, youtube proper technique, start light until you feel more comfortable with the movement as to not hurt your back. Maybe look into one of the stronglifts variations floating around there, user JasonDB on the bodybuilding.com forums has his own iteration that I'm currently following(Monday Wednesday Friday, ABA then BAB the following week):

Im quite interested in your workout program, how is it working out for you? Im doing 5x5 and im thinking about switching up in a few months.
I didnt add anything else other than the movements that was in the program.

---------- Post added 2013-02-01 at 05:26 PM ----------

Originally Posted by Scythax

5'11, 20yrs old. I was seriously skin and bones. >.>

I'm really interested in what a lot of you have said about rate of muscle growth in correlation to how much weight I've been gaining so far. Looking at myself I seriously don't see (or feel around my body) anything that feels fatty other than the small amount of stomach+side fat I had before. I see the extra substance in my arms and chest but I can tell it's not fat. I'm not saying you guys are wrong by ANY stretch but from the way my body feels and looks it just doesn't add up. : /

In one month you gained 15 pounds, 2 pounds is muscle MAX! Tone the supplements down and eat regular food.
Aim to gain max 4 pounds a month.

Im quite interested in your workout program, how is it working out for you? Im doing 5x5 and im thinking about switching up in a few months.
I didnt add anything else other than the movements that was in the program.

---------- Post added 2013-02-01 at 05:26 PM ----------

In one month you gained 15 pounds, 2 pounds is muscle MAX! Tone the supplements down and eat regular food.
Aim to gain max 4 pounds a month.

Fair enough, will do. I guess I started with such a low level of fat and weight to begin with that it just hasn't become noticable yet how much of what I'm eating is converting into fats. I'll re-evaluate my diet and cut out the weight gainer, see how things go.

Like other people have already said, you should incorporate some more compound movements like squats, deadlifts, and pull-ups. Add those for overall mass gain and growth. But if you have some kind of back injury I'd stay away from them.

Like other people have already said, you should incorporate some more compound movements like squats, deadlifts, and pull-ups. Add those for overall mass gain and growth. But if you have some kind of back injury I'd stay away from them.

Nope no back injuries, my posture is pretty good actually. Only problem I have is when I use shoulder press, my joints get really strong, dull pain all the way down to my elbows which lasts about half an hour then fades. Doesn't happen when I use dumbbells instead.

Nope no back injuries, my posture is pretty good actually. Only problem I have is when I use shoulder press, my joints get really strong, dull pain all the way down to my elbows which lasts about half an hour then fades. Doesn't happen when I use dumbbells instead.

If you dont have any back injuries you need to start doing Squats and Deadlifts.
But start light so you can perfect the form as the form is crucial on those moves or you might seriously injure yourself.

Im quite interested in your workout program, how is it working out for you? Im doing 5x5 and im thinking about switching up in a few months.
I didnt add anything else other than the movements that was in the program.[COLOR="red"]

I am currently really liking the program, I'm on a 10% bulk, and I've noticed some great strength gains thus far. I don't have a reliably accurate way to measure my body fat, just one of the electronic biometric hand helds, which is telling me ~10-11% BF @ 180lbs, so I cant really say anything on my gains till I start cutting in a few months to actually SEE, which is what really matters .

So your doing a 5x5 with 3-4 total movements? No accessory (bi/tri, abs, ect.) work/movements?